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Federal Antimonopoly Service approves new regulations on determining dominant market position

The Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation (the “FAS”) has approved new Regulations that set forth the procedure for determining the dominant position of a business entity. The document that contains the Regulations comes into force 10 days after it has been officially published. At this time, it has not been published.

The dominant position of a business entity is determined (i) by reviewing cases and/or materials concerning the infringement of antimonopoly legislation; as well as (ii) by monitoring economic concentration. When determining a business entity’s dominant position, the antimonopoly authorities analyse the state of competition in the relevant market. During the analysis, the FAS may request documents, information and explanations necessary to assess the state of competition; however, it must adhere to the legal requirements of protecting confidential information. When the review is complete, the FAS takes a decision and publishes the results on its official website.

The Regulations specify the exact timeframes during which the antimonopoly authorities are permitted to conduct a review. Specifically, when determining a business entity’s dominant position, these timeframes are:

three months when reviewing notifications and materials that indicate signs of infringement of antimonopoly legislation, and also when implementing state monitoring of economic concentration; and

nine months when reviewing information that indicates an actual infringement of antimonopoly legislation.

When the Regulations come into force, they are expected not only to change the procedure for determining the dominant position of a business entity, but also to affect the application of the relevant provisions of the Federal Law “On the Protection of Competition”.

[Order No. 345 of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation “On Approving the Administrative Regulations of the Federal Antimonopoly Service for Fulfilling the State Function on Determining the Dominant Position of a Business Entity when Reviewing Notifications, Materials, and Cases on the Violation of Antimonopoly Legislation, and when Implementing State Monitoring of Economic Concentration”, dated 25 May 2012]